The VC heroes 'forgotten' by Whitehall

The first day of the Battle of the Somme was the bloodiest in the history of
the British Army – and one which saw several acts of great bravery. By the
end of July 1 1916, ten Victoria Crosses had been won.

Stewart Loudoun-Shand was one of at least 20 British winners of the VC not eligible for a paving stone because of a technicality.Photo: WIKIPEDIA

As a centrepiece of its plans to mark the centenary of the war and the heroism of those men and others who received the award during the conflict, the Government has announced it is to install commemorative paving stones in the home towns of all British VC winners.

But of the ten from the first day of the Somme - nine soldiers and one airman - there is one who will not receive such a memorial: Stewart Loudoun-Shand, a major in The Green Howards who won the VC posthumously, after being killed leading his men over the top.

His company’s advance out of the trench had been halted by heavy German machine gunfire, so Loudoun-Shand leapt on the parapet to help his men out. Even after being hit, he insisted on being propped up, to encourage his men, until he died.

He has been excluded from the VC scheme because it applies only to winners born in Britain. Loudoun-Shand, although raised in south London where his family have a memorial, was born in Ceylon – now Sri Lanka – where his father had a tea plantation.

Campaigners say he is one of at least 20 British winners of the VC who are not eligible for a paving stone on this technicality and are calling on ministers to widen the project’s scope.

Sunder Katwala, director of the think tank British Future, has written to Eric Pickles, the Communities Secretary, whose department announced scheme, saying it has led to “arbitrary and unfair omissions”.

The project was inspired by the painting of gold post boxes for Olympic gold medallists last year, but Mr Katwala wrote: “The public would have been mystified by the exclusion of ... Mo Farah or Bradley Wiggins, on the grounds that they were born abroad. A similar inclusive principle should surely apply to the rather weightier matter of heroism during the First World War.”

He said it should be “a question of their bravery, not their birthplace”.

“This loophole is clearly causing upset to communities who want to honour their local war heroes,” he added.

Several local history groups in areas with links to foreign-born VC winners have criticised the plans and the project is also understood to have also caused disquiet on the government’s own advisory panel, which includes retired military figures, writers, historians and religious leaders.

The panel was not consulted on the scheme and several members have expressed concerns about its shortcomings. One said there had been “outrage” over the project which was “not thought through properly”.

In total, 628 VCs were awarded during the conflict. Of these, 365 were born in England, 71, in Scotland, 15 in Wales and eight in Northern Ireland. Twenty four are from what is now the Republic of Ireland.

Most of the remainder – from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, or India – fought for their own Commonwealth forces and do not have strong links with Britain. However, research by the historian Iain Stewart for British Future has found at least 20 VC winners who were essentially Britons but who happened to born overseas or have very strong links here.

One is Reginald Warneford, a Royal Navy pilot awarded the VC for destroying a Zeppelin over Belgium in 1915. His plane was damaged by burning debris and he was forced down by a broken fuel line 35 miles behind enemy lines, but he managed to repair it with a cigarette holder and return to base. He became a national hero, but was dead within ten days after falling from another aircraft.

Locals in Exmouth, where he lived, have complained that he has been refused a stone because he was born in Darjeeling, India, where his father worked on the railways.

In Ashby de la Zouch, Leicestershire, curators at the local museum want an official paving stone to commemorate Lt Col Phillip Bent, who received a posthumous VC after leading a successful counter attack, during the Battle of Polygon Wood, in October 1917.

Bent was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, although he was brought up in Ashby de la Zouch and was serving in the Leicestershire Regiment. He had led his men in his final charge, calling “Come on the Tigers” – the regimental symbol. Kenneth Hillier, a vice-chairman of the museum, said: “He was a true Leicestershire hero. It doesn’t matter where he was born – what matters is that he died fighting bravely for this country. It’s ridiculous that he should be excluded from these centenary commemorations next year.”

Also denied a paving stone is Lieut Maurice Dease, who was among a group to receive the first VCs of the war, when he stayed behind to defend a bridge from the advancing Germans. He was killed at his post and was the first posthumous winner of the award. He was born in County Westmeath, in Ireland, but moved to England at the age of eight, to attend school in Hampstead and, later, Stonyhurst College, the Jesuit college in Lancashire. Another soldier who received a VC in the same incident, Private Sidney Godley, is due to receive a stone, at his birthplace in West Sussex.

Sir Reginald Noble Graham is also ineligible because he was born in Calcutta, even though is from a family of Scottish baronets, was educated at Eton, then Cambridge, and joined the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders at the outbreak of the war. He won his VC while fighting in Mesopotamia, in modern day Iraq, in 1917, when, despite being repeatedly wounded, he was able to hold up an enemy attack.

After the war, he received a heroes welcome on his return to his home town of Cardross, then in Dunbartonshire, now Argyll, being carried along at shoulder height, preceded by a piper. He was later Usher of the Green Rod to the Order of the Thistle, taking part in state occasions.

The scheme will also deprive one of the most colourful of all VC recipients a commemorative stone. Adrian Carton de Wiat, served in the Boer War, First World War, and Second World War; was shot in the face, head, stomach, ankle, leg, hip, and ear; survived two plane crashes and tunnelled out of a prisoner of war camp. He was born in Brussels and was widely rumoured to be an illegitimate son of King Leopold II. But his father became a naturalised Briton and Carton de Wiat studied in England and joined the British Army. He won his VC during the Somme battle, for his leadership in coordinating forces under fire.

A spokesman for the DCLG said the Foreign and Commonwealth Office would look at ways to commemorate foreign-born VC winners. He added: “The men who gave their lives in the Great War will remain heroes forever. The Government will be setting out more of its plan to commemorate the 100th anniversary shortly. This will include the most appropriate way to commemorate Commonwealth and overseas Victoria Cross winners. No hero will be forgotten.”